For a plurality of reasons, the composting of solid waste has proven to be a desirable practice in residential and business applications. During composting, organic matter that would otherwise be added to already overburdened and overflowing landfills is decayed and decomposed into a usable mixture of lower volume and weight that can be reused advantageously in a number of useful endeavors including the fertilization and conditioning of land. As such, composting can be employed to convert materials that would otherwise pose as a nuisance presenting difficulties in handling, transportation, and disposal into a beneficial and potentially valuable end product. For example, compost can be used to great advantage in residential, commercial, and municipal applications. It can be used alone as environmentally safe land fill and cover, as mulch, and in combination with traditional soil to improve the performance characteristics of the soil.
As one would expect, therefore, the prior art has disclosed a wide variety of methods and apparatuses for composting solid organic waste. Composting apparatuses have varied from simple barrel constructions for personal and home use, to tractor-trailer sized composting units for commercial applications, to complete facilities for municipal composting. These structures and methods have contributed usefully to establish the present state of the art in composting.
The speed and effectiveness of the bacterial processes required for the decomposition of solid wastes are affected by a plurality of factors. Certain more advanced and complex composting arrangements have sought to exercise at least some degree of control over one or more of those factors. For example, many prior art disclosures have suggested that decomposition can be accelerated by ensuring that a ‘seed colony’ of bacteria is provided for facilitating a rapid beginning of the bacterial processes. Accordingly, many prior art systems and methods teach the consistent retention of at least a small portion of decomposed matter for being intermingled with incoming waste material.
Additionally, it has been found that solid waste decomposition is affected by the size of the particles to be digested. With that, certain prior art composting systems incorporate shredding or grinding means for reducing particles to a more readily decomposed size. Still further, it is known that certain desired decomposition processes are aerobic in nature. Therefore, for most effective decomposition throughout a volume of solid waste, the waste ideally will be aerated in some periodic manner. Some methods and systems carry out this aeration in whole or in part by injecting air into the volume of solid waste while others provide thorough aeration while also ensuring a relatively homogenous mixture of material by stirring the volume of material periodically. In many prior art arrangements, the stirring is carried out by rotating the compost container, which is typically cylindrical and often includes mixing baffles, such that the volume of waste material tumbles about thereby become generally mixed and aerated. Another known aeration and mixing technique is to provide an agitating rod, possibly with paddles or the like extending therefrom, that is rotatable within a normally cylindrical compost container.
Decomposition will occur over what is termed a mesophyllic range, which is typically from about 70 degrees Fahrenheit to about 105 degrees Fahrenheit, where mesophyllic bacteria are active. However, it is known that the initial stage of decomposition is carried out most effectively over a thermophilic range, which normally is from about 120 degrees Fahrenheit to about 150 degrees Fahrenheit, which is primarily dependent on thermophilic microorganisms. As the waste material transitions from mesophyllic to thermophilic temperatures, mesophyllic bacteria populations are replaced by thermophilic populations. In the latter stages of decomposition, the waste material normally cools to the mesophyllic range, and mesophyllic organisms again operate.
Advantageously, most pathogens are killed during the thermophilic stage when it rises above approximately 130 degrees Fahrenheit. Such elevated temperatures normally occur naturally as a byproduct of the heat that is generated during decomposition. If, however, ambient temperatures are excessively low or if the compost container is substantially incapable of retaining heat, then achieving suitably elevated temperatures may require the addition of heat or the provision of insulation relative to the compost container.
The composting systems and methods that have been designed for commercial applications have undeniably contributed usefully to the present state of the art. Unfortunately, however, prior art composting arrangements have suffered from a variety of disadvantages and shortcomings that have caused most proposed methods and systems to be inefficient and unworkable in practice. As such, most have remained primarily theoretical in nature, never achieving widespread or even substantial usage.
One major issue that has adversely affected the effectiveness and utility of prior art commercial composting systems is a noted inability to achieve full mixing of the retained waste material. For example, the rudimentary tumbling motion of rotating composters often fails to separate and mix the material to be composted. Similarly, the mixing blades on the rotating shafts of such composting units by their very nature fail to make widespread contact with the material to be composted.
Furthermore, a great majority of prior art composting systems, including those disclosed and protected by U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,071,740 and 6,352,855 to Kerouac, demand that a large composting drum, heavy when taken alone but particularly heavy when loaded with organic material, be rotated to achieve a mixing and progression of organic material. Such structures are notably inefficient not only with respect to mixing but also in relation to energy consumption. Just as notably, the need for rotating a large, heavy drum inherently requires complex and heavily built support and rotation arrangements. Such arrangements are inherently complex in construction and operation. Furthermore, they are prone to failure and difficult to repair. Even further, failures in such systems commonly require extended time for repair during which the devices unavailable for composting.
A further shortcoming that has hindered the success of composting systems of the prior art, particularly commercial-type composters, is that malfunctions commonly occur that are unknown to or irremediable by the operator. For example, much of the operating machinery within the composter, such as any shredder mechanism that might be in use and any rotatable components, is obscured from the operator's view. As a result, further material to be composted can be fed into a system that is already obstructed or otherwise disabled. Furthermore, most commercial-type composters are designed with a relatively high degree of complexity and expertise but are operated by persons with little or no expertise, which can often be combined with at least some degree of apathy. As such, an operator might entirely ignore, underestimate, or be completely unaware of a jammed or disabled shredder or other component of the composting system thereby leading to further damage to the system, increased difficulty of repair, and a compromised composting process.
In light of these and further disadvantages of prior art composting systems and methods, including their relative complexity and other design shortcomings, it is clear that there remains a need for an improved composting system and method that overcomes one or more of the disadvantages of the prior art. It is clearer still that a composting system and method that provides a solution to each of the abovedescribed disadvantages while demonstrating enhanced effectiveness and utility would represent a marked advance in the art.